Wilton 5 Inch Basket Case Vise Help

[Roberts210]

I bought this 5-inch Wilton Machinist vise on ebay. Seller said something was wrong with it. The vise was apart, but he didn't know how to fix it. $200. Pickup only. My worthless nephew happened to live in the same city, so I took a chance and sent worthless nephew the $200 (hoped he wouldn't spend on beer and girls) and asked him to pick it up for me. A month goes by and nephew finally shows up with the vise in the bed of his truck, only the dynamic jaw was mounted on the BACK END OF THE VISE. Yes. Dynamic was screwed into where the dust cap should go. The nut was loose, as someone had pulled the pins and they evidently didn't know about how to use an allen wrench to remove the pins--looks like they used an angle grinder to dig out a little around the pins and then pull them out with pliers. Date on the slide is Jan 1970.

So I cleaned it up, primed and painted it and assembled it correctly. I used roll pins in place of the original type solid steel pins. The problem is the handle is hard to turn. If you look at the 2nd picture you can see the round on the handle end of the screw doesn't quite line up with the hole in the dynamic jaw. Now its not as bad as the picture shows, as there is a little wiggle in the screw, but I couldn't lift the handle-end of the screw up, which would shave the clearance down to about half, and take the picture at the same time. I can get the handle to seat into the dynamic jaw, but it takes some pressure to make it go in, and it's a little hard to turn. I can turn the handle with two fingers, but there is resistance. Every other Wilton Machinist vise I've owned you could spin the handle with one finger easy as pie.

So I think the nut must be misaligned just a little bit. But why?
Questions? Comments?

 

[Roberts210]

This is my old daily driver--a 4-1/2" Wilton Machinist vise with swivel base, but in the 30 years I've owned this vise, I never used the swivel..... well maybe once I used it. But I gave it to my buddy whose Chinese-****-vise was giving out. I replaced this vise with the 5" in the above pictures.

 

[Roberts210]

Here is a roll pin installed, and you can see where someone used.... something.... to dig around the hole to remove the original pins.

 

[dcummer]

I wonder if your Wilton has a similar cause to the 1998 model 1745 I recently got. On mine, the spindle was rubbing hard against the top of the hole in the dynamic jaw. The problem was the outside of the vise nut was riding on the bottom of the inside of the dynamic jaw causing the threaded axis to be higher than the dynamic jaw's hole. The outside of the vise nut was a mostly unfinished forging. Cleaning it up and removing maybe 1/16" from the outside bottom of the vise nut allowed the vise nut to align and now the spindle sets free within the dynamic. It was a satisfying repair, 100% eliminated the annoying drag on the spindle. Maybe this'll help you? Good luck.

 

[Roberts210]

Thanks. I'll check that out.

 

[dcummer]

Quick addition to above - on mine the nut was retained with two 3/16" x 1" 'partially knurled dowel pins' as McMaster calls them. Not really dowel pins since they are soft, and have straight knurling (or ribbing) on half the length. Mine were exactly replaced with McMaster 95896a160. Since they do not bind up in the vise nut they allow the nut to freely rotate (slightly) in the vertical direction. Hard to imagine the grip of your roll pins will have an ill effect, but figured I'd mention it. Again good luck, you'll get it right.

 

[Roberts210]

I didn't give much thought to whether the roll pins would mis-align the nut, but since I put them in, I've wondered if I should replace them with something better. Thanks for the part number. I'll order a pair and see if that helps. I know the screw is not bent.

I've taken chances on ebay & CL "parts" vises before, but I think I came out of this one smelling like rose. This is a great vise. Jaws align perfectly. Its just that the handle is a little bit harder to turn than it should be.

 

[paulsomlo]

Remove the roll pins and see if that cures the binding. If not, it's most likely where the spindle exits the dynamic. I had one where I machined a delrin bushing to center the spindle in the dynamic.

 

[Roberts210]

Its rubbing where the spindle exits the dynamic, but the problem is deeper in the vise.
One idea I had was to put the spindle in my buddy's lathe and turn about 10 to 15 thou off the OD of the spindle section that the horseshoe washer pushes against. I'm betting 10 to 15 thou, which would translate to 20 to 30 thou off the diameter, would fix the binding.

 

[RoninB4]

-The simplest way to narrow the search for the problem IMO is to remove the nut and lead screw from the vise body. Yes it's a bit of work but the results will be conclusive. With the nut and lead screw out of the vise body put the nut on the lead screw and run it all the way up and back. If there's any binding/sticking then a previous owner likely over-torqued, mismatched it (swapped components) or somehow deformed either. If no binding/sticking then the problem is with alignment or interference in the vise body. It's a nice looking vise, I once worked at the Schiller Park facility and hope you get this one sorted for regular duty.

 

[Roberts210]

Thank you Ronin. I did that when I first got the vise. There is no binding or sticking when running the nut down the lead screw.